Can I deduct my donation to epicenter.works from my taxes?

Donations and membership fees made from 1 January 2024 onwards are tax-deductible in Austria. If you would like us to forward your details to the tax office automatically, please enter your name exactly as registered in the Central Register of Residents (Melderegister) and your date of birth, either when you sign up or later in our member portal.

If you are not a supporting member but have made a one-off donation (PayPal / bank transfer), please fill in this form (DE).

Forwarding your data is completely voluntary and only takes place if you provide your registered name and date of birth.

Important: your registered name may include a middle name. Please do not include any academic or professional titles.

What information does epicenter.works need so that I can deduct my donation?

The tax office needs your full name as registered in the Central Register of Residents and your date of birth. If you want to deduct your donation, please provide this information either in our member portal or via the form (DE).

When entering your details, please make sure your name matches the entry on your registration certificate (Meldezettel) exactly. For example, if a second first name is listed there, you must include it as well. If the details differ, the tax office may not be able to match the donation to you, which can cause problems with your tax refund.

Where can I find the portal for epicenter.works supporting members?

If you are a supporting member, you can check your details directly in our member portal and add your name and date of birth. To do so, log in at support.epicenter.works with your email address.

Where can I find the form for one-off donations to epicenter.works?

If you have donated to us on or after 1 January 2024, you can register for tax deduction using this form (DE).

Is there a cut-off date from which donations to epicenter.works are tax-deductible?

Thanks to a change in Austrian law, all donations and membership fees to epicenter.works made since 1 January 2024 are tax-deductible, including retroactively.

Which payment methods allow me to deduct my donation?

For technical reasons, only direct bank transfers and PayPal payments can be traced back to individual donors and reported to the tax office. Donations made via Stripe cannot be matched to a person and therefore cannot be reported to the tax office.

Do I need to declare my donation in my annual tax return (Arbeitnehmerveranlagung)?

No, we report it to the tax office at the beginning of the following year. The amount you donated will then be recorded in your tax file.

How much will I get back from the tax office?

The amount of your tax refund depends on your tax bracket, i.e. on your income. You can deduct at most 10% of your taxable income. For example, if your taxable annual income is €40,000, you can claim up to €4,000 in donations per year.

You can find the Austrian income tax brackets here (DE). If, as in the example above, your taxable income is €40,000, you fall into the 40% tax bracket, so a €100 donation only costs you €60. You will get €40 back with your next annual tax assessment.

Can I deduct my donation if I don’t live in Austria?

Unfortunately, due to the current legal situation, we can only report donations automatically for people who are subject to tax in Austria.

If you pay taxes in Germany, you need to declare your donation yourself and enclose our statutes (DE) so that the tax office can verify our charitable status.

We currently have no further information for other EU member states. However, we are happy to support you if you are able to deduct donations or membership fees to epicenter.works in your country.

What do I need to do if my details change?

If you are a member, you can easily update your name yourself in the member portal at support.epicenter.works [[LINK: support.epicenter.works/]]. If you are not a member and your name changes, please use this form (DE).

Is there a difference between one-off donations and memberships?

We collect your data in different ways, but both supporting memberships and one-off donations are tax-deductible.

If you are not a member and have donated via PayPal or bank transfer, please fill in this form (DE). As a member, you can simply add your date of birth in the member portal. If you are a member and have also made additional donations, we will match them in the background and report the total amount to the tax office.

I’m self-employed or donating as a company – what can I do?

In this case, donations of up to 10% of your profit are deductible as business expenses. However, you have to provide proof of the donation yourself with a receipt, since automatic reporting is only possible for private individuals. To request a receipt, please contact us at spenden@epicenter.works 

Is my data safe, and how long do you store it?

You can find all the details in our Privacy Policy. If you opt for automatic reporting, we store your data for seven years after the last report, in line with statutory retention periods. The report is made at the beginning of the year following the donation.